Nice! Similar story...
I'm a Controls Engineer; I design control systems for industrial process equipment (conveyors, palletizers, extruders, etc.) and CNC is more of a hobby. But people usually assume I'm some sort of "whiz" or "hacker" and throw random stuff at me. Just so happens I had a customer with a Denford NovaTurn he got at auction. He couldn't run it because it didn't come with the license floppies. He sent me home with the PC and wanted me to "hack" it. I told him I would evaluate it and see if what could be done. I spent a couple of hours and came to the conclusion that it needed a retrofit. I offered to quote him, told him it would probably cost more than the machine was worth, and of course he declined. I think he sold it on eBay. Maybe you bought it?